The recent two decades have witnessed a developing historical debate between China and Japan. Standing in the center of this debate are different historical interpretations presented in textbooks. Both China and Japan seem to blame each other for promoting supposedly politically-biased historical education. This has become a growing problem causing wide concerns even internationally: on the one hand, there is an increasing debate about the supposed existence of "Anti-Japanese" education in... Show moreThe recent two decades have witnessed a developing historical debate between China and Japan. Standing in the center of this debate are different historical interpretations presented in textbooks. Both China and Japan seem to blame each other for promoting supposedly politically-biased historical education. This has become a growing problem causing wide concerns even internationally: on the one hand, there is an increasing debate about the supposed existence of "Anti-Japanese" education in China since the last decade of 20th century; on the other, many scholars from China, Japan and the Western world also criticize what they see as a distorted (or omitted) history of the war presented in Japanese textbooks. According to the "framing" theories introduced by scholars such as Foucault, Giltin, Gamson, and Modigliani in the late 20th century, history textbooks, just like media, could "organize the world" both for authors who wrote them and students who rely on them. There are many skills in framing history in textbooks and one of them is the skill of "pointing at one [to] abuse another." Using a specific technique to analyze the interplays between changing politics and educational narratives surrounding World War II (which began in China in 1937) in Chinese and Japanese middle school textbooks during a certain period: 1950-1990, the paper aims to discover the history of changing narratives about World War II in both Chinese and Japanese middle school history textbooks and how they interacted with politics over time. Show less

This dissertation stems from an ethnographic experience, i.e., a course on the Six Healing Sounds of Qigong taught by Dr Yu Zhang, which I and other students attended in 1991 in Los Angeles, California. The course led to the following questions: What is qigong? What are the Six Healing sounds? Are the claims of this healing tradition to ancient origins accurate? These questions led to the following conclusions: Qigong is indeed a practice of ancient origins, albeit one that comes from... Show moreThis dissertation stems from an ethnographic experience, i.e., a course on the Six Healing Sounds of Qigong taught by Dr Yu Zhang, which I and other students attended in 1991 in Los Angeles, California. The course led to the following questions: What is qigong? What are the Six Healing sounds? Are the claims of this healing tradition to ancient origins accurate? These questions led to the following conclusions: Qigong is indeed a practice of ancient origins, albeit one that comes from different streams of Daoist and medical practices. Its name is a recent design by the Chinese government in the early 1950's, with the ulterior goal of creating an effective, low cost health care system rooted in Chinese culture. Apart from the answers provided above, I argue that qigong is a body technology that uses slow, gentle exercises, visualizations and standing and sitting meditations to elicit a state of reverie, a liminal or altered state of consciousness that is conducive to bodily, mental and spiritual experiences and transformation. Show less

Date Issued

2015

Identifier

FSU_migr_etd-9566

Format

Thesis

Title

The People's Liberation Army 1949-1982: Military Development and Its Influences.

Creator

Reddick, Zachary N. (Zachary Nicholas), Grant, Jonathan A., Culver, Annika A., Liebeskind, Claudia, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy,... Show moreReddick, Zachary N. (Zachary Nicholas), Grant, Jonathan A., Culver, Annika A., Liebeskind, Claudia, Florida State University, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Interdisciplinary Program in Social Science Show less

Abstract/Description

This work examines the early development of the People's Liberation Army in China, and establishes a new periodization for its study. The PLA's development from 1949-1982 was largely chaotic. Its early development was based on reactionary reforms, official lash back to the results of those military reforms, and a long struggle for Mao Zedong to reestablish control over the PLA. This work presents the argument that changes in the PLA's development strategy were initiated from within China's... Show moreThis work examines the early development of the People's Liberation Army in China, and establishes a new periodization for its study. The PLA's development from 1949-1982 was largely chaotic. Its early development was based on reactionary reforms, official lash back to the results of those military reforms, and a long struggle for Mao Zedong to reestablish control over the PLA. This work presents the argument that changes in the PLA's development strategy were initiated from within China's command structure and in direct response to domestic stimuli. The alternate periodization that this work presents is constructed around the domestic events that directly led to large-scale changes in the PLA's training, function, and role in Chinese society. Show less

Date Issued

2015

Identifier

FSU_migr_etd-9434

Format

Thesis

Title

Savior from Civilization: Charles Brent, Episcopal Bishop to the Philippine Islands, and the Role of Religion in American Colonialism, 1901-1918.

This work explores first and foremost the nature of the Episcopal mission to the colonial Philippines from 1901 to 1918, while it was under the leadership of a missionary bishop named Charles Henry Brent. Missionaries, such as Brent, served an essential role in the American colonial enterprise in the Philippines. The historiography tends to label missionaries as cultural imperialists. Missionaries did not abstain from culturally imperialistic behavior. But, they also acted at times as... Show moreThis work explores first and foremost the nature of the Episcopal mission to the colonial Philippines from 1901 to 1918, while it was under the leadership of a missionary bishop named Charles Henry Brent. Missionaries, such as Brent, served an essential role in the American colonial enterprise in the Philippines. The historiography tends to label missionaries as cultural imperialists. Missionaries did not abstain from culturally imperialistic behavior. But, they also acted at times as protectors of Philippine culture. How could missionaries act both as imperialists and attempt to preserve native culture in the Philippines? Contrary to the theories of some historians, missionaries did not see their actions as contradictory, but as complimentary. The reason for this: ideology. Missionaries defined their purpose based not on the motives of the Philippine Commission—the American governing body in the islands—but on their own theology. Brent and his mission will be used as a prominent example, a microcosm, to prove this point. The three chapters within focus on ideology and theology as the primary motivators for characters within this narrative. The first chapter looks at the American people and the U.S. government, tracing the development of racially and religiously motivated feelings toward the Philippines and the Filipinos. The chapter then turns to missionaries and traces both their theological and their ideological reasons for going to the Philippines. Just as with the American people and the American government, racial and religious reasoning urged missionaries to go to the Philippines. While a large part of the missionary justification for proselyting in the Philippines was the existence of a minority of non-Christians in the archipelago, upon arrival in the islands Protestant missionaries primarily focused on the conversion of Roman Catholic Filipinos. This chapter highlights the motivations of the U.S. government and the Philippine Commission, and compares them with those of the Protestant missionaries. The second chapter turns to Brent's mission. As ideology is essential to this narrative, this chapter is an exploration of his theological and ideological motivations. The chapter underscores Brent's one focus above all others in the Philippines. He wanted to save the non-Christians, especially the Igorots—an animist group in Northern Luzon—from what he referred to as the concomitants of civilization. Believing that civilization was being ushered into the Philippines by the American presence in the islands, Brent felt that non-Christians needed to be protected from the concomitants, or vices, that would inevitably come along with civilization. In essence, he wanted to be their savior from civilization. Brent felt that the Igorots did not need Christianity while in isolation, their religion would suit their needs. But, now that they would no longer be isolated, Christianity was all that could save them from succumbing to vice. When work among the Igorots lost Brent's interest, he transferred these same feelings to the Moros—the Muslim community in the Philippines—determining to help prepare them for Christianization. The two other groups that Brent's mission targeted, the Americans stationed in the islands and the Chinese population in Manila, while important in their own right, received attention from Brent partly because of the influence they had on the Igorots and the Moros. Chapter Two illustrates how Brent's theology and ideology led him to create a unique mission. It focuses on his ecumenism, views on morality and vice, and his belief in responsibility. The third chapter builds on the foundation laid in Chapter Two. Detailing the four sections of Brent's mission, Chapter Three demonstrates that the theological concern that drove Brent was his desire to save the non-Christian Filipinos from civilization. It illustrates that the policies implemented by Brent in each part of his mission, show a consistent concern for the "heathen" and saving him from vice through his Christianization. The chapter simultaneously proves that these efforts sometimes aligned with those of the Philippine Commission, aiding them in their goals. But, it also is clear that Brent occasionally redirected not only the Philippine Commission, but also the U.S. government, pushing them to help accomplish his agenda. This provides a picture of the relationship between the missionary and the colonial enterprise. It was complex. The missionary often had his own motives, and acted independently. He was also a crucial part of the American presence in the Philippines, making a large contribution to the American operation in the islands. Show less

Date Issued

2016

Identifier

FSU_FA2016_Ratcliffe_fsu_0071N_13614

Format

Thesis

Title

Molding a Model Minority: CCP Strategies of Social Control and Liberating the Zhuang from Economic Struggle.

Creator

Yeargin, Amanda, Culver, Annika A., Frank, Andrew, Grant, Jonathan A., Florida State University, College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, Program in International Affairs

Abstract/Description

This qualitative study, which examines media representation issues of China’s Zhuang people and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, is based on a content analysis of the People’s Daily, the official media organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Using the Zhuang and Guangxi as a case study, I investigate CCP strategies of social control within the People’s Daily, advancing scholarship on the authoritarian utilization of media and minority-majority relations. My study features primary... Show moreThis qualitative study, which examines media representation issues of China’s Zhuang people and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous region, is based on a content analysis of the People’s Daily, the official media organ of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Using the Zhuang and Guangxi as a case study, I investigate CCP strategies of social control within the People’s Daily, advancing scholarship on the authoritarian utilization of media and minority-majority relations. My study features primary research as I provide quantitative data to support my qualitative analysis, concluding that the CCP, within the People’s Daily, strategically prescribes correct ideology and conduct through 1) distortion of reality through projections of power, and disproportionate representation of certain topical categories within the People’s Daily (Chapter Five), 2) distraction from sensitive topics through the displacement, or redirection, of readership’s attention (Chapter Five), and 3) prescription and modeling of correct behavior (Chapter Six). These strategies, I argue, are similar to the Chinese dynastic official texts used to instruct imperial women on how to behave. I not demonstrate in my study the CCP’s strategies in using media to shape thought and maintain social control over the Zhuang and Guangxi, but also explore Zhuang responses to the CCP’s disseminated messages (Chapter Seven). For the content analysis which serves as the basis of my study, I, along with statisticians at Florida State University’s Survey Research Laboratory, categorized all articles published in the People’s Daily from 1990-2015 with the keyword Zhuangzu (Zhuang nationality) into nineteen categories. The five largest were Local Politics and Policy, Development, Culture, Elections, and Interactions with Foreigners. Each category is illustrated in a figure which shows the shifting focuses of the CCP over time. Through my original research, using the data retrieved from the People’s Daily, I construct a periodization in representation of the Zhuang and Guangxi, which I have chosen to organize by phases: “Phase One: Post-Tiananmen Restructuring (1990-1992),” “Phase Two: Deng’s Economic Developments Take Root and Bear Fruit (1992-2001),” “Phase Three: New Millennium, New Problems (1999-2006),” and “Phase Four: China’s Global Debut (2005-2015).” With this periodization, I provide a framework by which to understand twenty-five years of political and economic developments for the Zhuang and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as I explore the dynamics of the CCP’s use of the People’s Daily for social control. Then, I analyze in depth two phenomena found within the People’s Daily which apply specifically to the Zhuang people. The first is my comparative study between dynastic and modern texts, in which I relate Chinese imperial strategies of control over women and the CCP strategies of control over the Zhuang. I draw parallels between the use of exemplary citizens in official texts to model appropriate behavior, observing how dynastic women and modern Zhuang, each periphery peoples, were ‘managed’ and represented in similar ways by their respective central authorities. Finally, I further investigate the use of tourism as economic development, and culture as a commodity, at the urging of the CCP, among the Zhuang. After the previous chapters in which I focus heavily on the unidirectional dissemination of state messages, within this chapter, I illustrate the Zhuang expression of ethnic identity and agency in the context of ethno-tourism, while drawing comparisons with present day Native Americans within the United States, and their experiences at historic reconstruction sites. The figures I provide, along with the periodization in which I interpret these figures, will prove to be a valuable resource for historians, anthropologists, and social scientists alike, advancing scholarship on the Zhuang as well as the CCP use of strategies within the People’s Daily as a mechanism of social control. My comparative analysis of the use of “Exemplary People” in dynastic and present day texts is an extension of this periodization, in that it offers a deeper analysis of the People’s Daily and its functions, while demonstrating the continuity of the Chinese central government’s strategy of modeling correct behavior within state-sanctioned texts. My exploration of ethno-tourism offers a look at the reception of government-issued media, as I shift my focus away from the source of the unidirectional messages, analyzing instead the responses of the supposedly passive recipients. Ultimately, my study is one of intersecting discourses and narratives as the Chinese state, and the society which it endeavors to mold by use of the media, together negotiate a mutual future. Show less